Techniques of Effectively Enlarging Middle School Students’ Vocabulary.doc

有效地扩大中学生词汇的技巧Techniques of Effectively Enlarging Middle School Students VocabularyContentsAbstract .1Key words.1IIntroduction.2IIThe Importance of Vocabulary Teaching and Learning in Middle School. .2IIIDifferent Categories of Words.33.1 Content Words.33.2 Dictionary Words.33.3 Derived Words.33.4 Lexical Items .43.5 Context.43.6 Passive Vocabulary and Active Vocabulary .43.7 Similar Words and Opposite Words.53.8 Parts of a Word .5IVWord Formation.54.1 Affixation.64.2 Compounding.64.3 Conversion.64.4 Blending.74.5 Clipping .74.6 Acronymy.7VThe Present Problems of Students Studying English in Middle School.85.1 The Mentality of Disregarding the Learning of Vocabulary.85.2 The Mentality of Loathing to Study Vocabulary.85.3 The Mentality of Feeling Anxious to The Learning of Vocabulary.95.4 The Mentality of Helping Foreign Language Study With Mother Tongue.9VIDiscuss Some Good Techniques to Teach English Vocabulary Well96.1 Using Visuals.96.2 Using Gestures.106.3 Drawings106.4 Teaching Series and Word Sequence.116.5 Using Known Vocabulary.116.6 Grouping.126.7 Discovery Techniques.136.8 Using the Native Language.136.9 By Communication.146.10 Teaching Vocabulary in Context.156.11 By Introducing the Knowledge of Culture Background.15VIIBy Adopting Scientific Vocabulary Teaching Techniques, Teachers Can Help Students Improve Their Language Acquisition Ability and Language Competence.16VIIIConclusion.16References.17摘要： 当我们进入二十一世纪，词汇的获得成为一个更重要的角色。因此，有一些人就开始争论，争论词汇在第二语言学习中的位置。语法是语言的基本模型，词汇是语言的基本材料；如果没有语法 ，我们几乎不能明确地表达思想；而如果没有词汇我们则完全无法表达任何东西。词汇教学是英语教学中不可或缺的一部分。一些中学英语教师在讲授词汇时，把词汇从上下文中脱离出来，忽略了科学的学习规律；从长远来看，这种传统的词汇教学方法不仅不利于学生形成和提高英语语言能力，反而会导致他们对英语失去兴趣。作为中学生学习英语的启蒙老师，中学英语教师应对此承担一定的责任。在该论文中，我提供了一些较为科学的词汇教学方法，我希望这些方法对中学英语教师会有一定的参考价值。关键词：词汇 教学方法 词汇教学 教学策略 语言能力Abstract: As we enter the 21st century, acquisition of vocabulary has assumed a more important role, and as some would argue, it has assumed the central role in learning a second language. Grammar provides the overall patterns, and vocabulary is the material to put in the patterns. Without grammar we can convey a little, but without vocabulary we can convey nothing. Vocabulary teaching is an indispensable part of English curriculum. But some traditional vocabulary-teaching methods seem to isolate the words from the context or break away from the scientific rules, which they cant help students to develop a language competence in the long run but cause them to lose interest in English. Middle school English teachers should take great responsibility for this, since they are the premier ones who introduce students to the field of English. In this paper, I would provide several scientific vocabulary-teaching techniques. I think they could be valuable for middle school English teachers during their teaching process.Key words: vocabulary; teaching methods; lexical teaching; teaching strategies; competenceIIntroduction In China, English teachers have sometimes tended to overlook the importance of the lexical system. This is especially obvious in the middle school. This phenomenon might have resulted from the fact that linguists have worked out a perfect equivalent Chinese vocabulary system to English vocabulary system, so that teachers and students can more easily deal with the vocabulary than with the grammar and pronunciation of English which are quite different from the Chinese grammar and sound system.Lexical items may also have appeared to be of secondary importance because they have sometimes been seen as that which is used to “flesh out” the structure or to exemplify parts of the sound system. However, without lexicon the major meaning-caring element in language is missing. Therefore, the acquisition of vocabulary is an integral part of English teaching.On the other hand, there are teachers who have tended to overemphasize the learning of words in the lengthy vocabulary lists. The old English textbook (JUNIOR ENGLISH FOR CHINA, Peoples Publisher of China, 1990) bears silent witness to such an approach.The solution here is to seek scientific techniques of vocabulary teaching. Students should be exposed to the vocabulary needed to express the ideas they want to communicate. The vocabulary items should not be strictly limited, nor should vocabulary acquisition be stressed to the exclusion of other parts of the language system.IIThe Importance of Vocabulary Teaching and Learning in Middle SchoolWord is one of the three basic language units (sound, word, grammar). It is essential to communication. One of the famous linguists Wilkins once said that, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”(Wilkins, ENGLISH STUDY, Foreign Language Study Institute, 1987) Little children learn to speak in isolated words and then in chains of nouns and verbs. A child who says “Mum bye-bye bike” is easily understood by English-speaking adult. Students who are immersed into a new linguistic settling tend to pick up vocabulary first, and then gradually develop a more accurate, structural framework in which to use these words. And they must continually be learning words as they learn structures and as they practice the sound system. Therefore, vocabulary teaching is an indispensable part of English lessons in middle school, and an important task for the teachers. Whether a middle school English teacher can follow scientific methods to teach vocabulary or not directly bring good or bad influence toward the students. If his methods are suitable for the students and beneficial for them in the long run, he could arouse their interest in English and help them to develop a solid foundation of language acquisition ability; whereas if he fails to do so, it might result in the students diffidence toward themselves and might cause them to disgust English.IIIDifferent Categories of WordsThe teaching of new words is vague and misleading, as it does not tell us what words are and gives no ideas of why or how we should teach them. Let us first of all try to give some precision to the vague term word. To do this I need to establish different categories of words. 3.1 Content Words All nouns, adjectives and adverbs and nearly all verbs are content words. If someone says to you judge or witness or repeat you will have some idea what he is talking about even though the speaker is not communicating in grammatical utterances. You understand something because you, as the listener, are able to associate these words with referents. All content words have referents and therefore have meaning. The teaching of vocabulary is mainly concerned with the teaching of meaning and therefore with the presentation of content words. 3.2 Dictionary Words A word when it appears in dictionary, a word list or an index is a dictionary word. A dictionary word can be asked to produce other forms of the word, for example:Love, loves, loved, loving A dictionary word can have many different meanings depending on when, where and how it is used. It is therefore pointless to teach dictionary words. For example, it is not practical or useful to teach favor (it has many forms and over thirty potential meanings) but its practical and useful to teach a favor with the meaning show in Wait a minute, Bill. Will you do me a favor? I need someone to give my mother a lift to the station. 3.3 Derived Words We should give the name derived words to the words, which are derived from dictionary words. Thus the dictionary word drink can be said to represent the derived words drank, drunk, drinking, drinks, drinker, etc. In lists the dictionary word is used to save time and space but in the classroom the derived words should be taught. Many derived words differ only in form and grammatical function and are therefore taught in structure lessons. However some related derived words differ in potential meaning and are therefore taught in the vocabulary lesson. 3.4 Lexical Items When a derived word is used in a particular utterance with a particular meaning we refer to it as a lexical item. In the following sentence there are ten words and five lexical items. I put up with my brothers insults for a week. A lexical item is a word (or group of words) which when used in a particular type of utterance has one referent and therefore one meaning. Notice that put up with is one lexical item; the three words have one referent and if one of the words is omitted the meaning will change. Lexical items are what we actually use to communicate meaning when we speak or write and therefore it is lexical items and not dictionary words that we should be teaching in the vocabulary lesson. 3.5 Context The context of a word is the real life situation in which the word is used. Thus in the following sentence the context of the lexical item penalty is football match: Holland was awarded a penalty in the first few minutes of their World Cup Final match against West Germany. However, in the following sentences the context of penalty is not a football match. A. The penalty for throwing rubbish in the streets is 5. B. There is a penalty clause in the contract. C. You are now paying the penalty of a life of drunkenness. In these sentences, the meanings of the different lexical items penalty are related but their referents are different because their contexts are different. 3.6 Passive Vocabulary and Active Vocabulary There is no difference between passive vocabulary and active vocabulary in vocabulary itself. Passive vocabulary and active vocabulary only indicate the level which students have grasped vocabulary. A students passive vocabulary consists of the total number of lexical items, which he can understand correctly and a students active vocabulary consists of the total number of lexical items, which he can accurately use, in speed and writing. A learners passive vocabulary will always be larger than his active vocabulary as he will have heard or read items which he will never need to use, and he will be able to understand approximately many items which he cannot use with any degree of accuracy. 3.7 Similar Words and Opposite Words Every language has groups of lexical items, which are very similar in meaning (synonyms) but differ slightly from others. Synonyms can differ according to a degree, reference, implication, grammatical form, for example: goodsbelongs, property, gear and so on. A new lexical item can often be effectively taught by contrasting it with another item which has some relation of opposition to it and which is already known to the students. This is especially true of extreme opposite (i.e. polar opposite), for example: North PoleSouth Pole, evilvirtuous, heavylight, and easydifficult. 3.8 Parts of a Word Just as a sentence is split up into units called words, so a word itself can be divided into units. The word inedible can be divided into three units in, ed and ible. The first unit, in is a prefix, ed is a root and ible is a suffix. The root of a word is that part of a word which communicates the main meaning. If you take out the root the word becomes meaningless. A prefix comes before a root and adds something to the meaning of the root. A suffix follows the root and usually indicates that part of speech a word belongs to. IVWord FormationThe expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word formation. There is a variety of means being at work now. The most productive are affixation, compounding and conversion. The test of the new words come from shortening including clipping and acronymy, numbering 8%, together with 1% to 5% of words born out of blending and other means.4.1 Affixation Affixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding word-forming or derivational affixes to bases. According to the position affixes occupy in words, affixation falls into two subcategories: prefixation and suffixation.a. prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to bases. e.g:dis: discredit, disorder. extra: extra-large, extra-bright.in: injustice, immature. mini: mini-market, mini-boom.de: demystify, deforestation. super: supermodern, superhuman.un: unbug, unlock. tele: telescope, teleprinter.b. suffixation is the formation of new words by adding suffixes to bases. e.g:er: teenager, glover. ess: hostess, priestess.ful: careful, armful. hood: adulthood, daughterhood.ent: dependent, respondent. able: washable, admirable.4.2 Compounding Compounding is the formation of new words by joining two or more bases. Most compounds consist of only two bases but are formed on a rich variety of patterns and the internal grammatical relationships within the words ate considerably complex. this section will focus on the three major classes of compounds, laying emphasis on the two aspects as stated above.a. Noun Compounds n + n: moom walk, end product. n + v: toothache, frostbite. b. Adjective Compounds a + a: deaf-mute, bitter-sweet.a + v-ing: easy-going, high-souding.4.3 ConversionConversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class, i.e. by turning words of one part of speech to those of another part of speech in traditional terms.a. Conversion to Nouns want what is wanted help one who helps walk a place for walking b. Conversion to Verbs to put the money to put money into the pocket to nurse the baby to be the nurse for the baby to bicycle to go by bicycle c. Conversion to Adjectives an iron gate a chalk board stone house a house made of stone 4.4 Blending Blending is the formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word. Words crea